Andijan refugees in Romania await third-country resettlement

More than 400 Uzbek refugees from Andijan who fled violence in the eastern Uzbek city are currently living in Romania after an evacuation by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from Kyrgyzstan in July, and awaiting third-country resettlement. "Uzbek refugees live in an accommodation centre in the western city of Timisoara, run by the National Refugee Office [under the Romanian interior ministry]. They are accommodated in three buildings, with all the necessary facilities," Cristina Bunea, an assistant public information officer with the UNHCR mission in Romania, said from the capital, Bucharest. But they still remember the tragic events they witnessed in Andijan in May and the UNHCR mission has arranged specialised psychological care for those in need of help, Bunea added. Some 540 Uzbeks crossed the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border in mid-May after Uzbek security forces violently cracked down on protests in Andijan. Upwards of 1,000 protesters, mainly unarmed civilians, may have been killed, according to rights groups, while Tashkent put the death toll at 187. Initially, the Andijan Uzbeks were settled in an improvised camp in the Teshik Tash border area of the southern Kyrgyz province of Jalal-Abad, but were later moved to a more secure facility. However, with Uzbek authorities demanding the extradition of Uzbeks, UNHCR decided to airlift 439 refugees to Romania, a temporary stop ahead of resettlement to a third country. Carlos Zaccagnini, head of the UNHCR mission in Kyrgyzstan, said that the Uzbek refugees staying in Timisoara were not confined to the camp and could visit the town, which is not far away from where they live. They were receiving adequate shelter, food and medical assistance there. Moreover, they were attending English language classes and the children were being offered education. There were 74 women and 23 children among the refugees, he added. Bunea said that 25 of the Uzbeks had already left for other European countries and the remaining 414 were currently in the process of resettlement to third countries, while teams from recipient countries were interviewing refugees and issuing formal acceptances. Canada, the US, Australia, Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and other European countries are among those that traditionally provide permanent residence for refugees. "The refugee acceptance procedure can take up to six months or [even] more at times. This process is going well and Germany will be the first resettlement country,” Zaccagnini explained. In September, 11 Uzbeks, who had been held in detention in southern Kyrgyzstan since May, went directly to their resettlement countries because they had been accepted by those governments prior to their departure. “Four of them were resettled to Sweden, four to Finland and three to the Netherlands,” Zaccagnini said. When UNHCR evacuated the main group of Andijan Uzbeks, 15 of them remained in Kyrgyzstan, while authorities there investigated their involvement in organising the Andijan uprising as Tashkent claimed. While the Andijan 11 were later released and transferred to their destination countries two months ago, the fate of the remaining four remains unclear. The office of Kyrgyzstan’s Prosecutor-General submitted their case to court. Meanwhile, the Uzbek refugees in Timosoara have no plans to go home yet. "Uzbek refugees want to return home one day when the situation allows them to return in safety and dignity to their countries of origin. But, for the moment, none of the Uzbek refugees want to return," Bunea noted.